Johann Martin Steiner

Johann Martin Steiner (born May 28, 1738 in Sonneberg ; † September 14, 1805 there ) was a German painter, mayor and chronicler.

Johann Martin Steiner was born as the fourth child of the box painter Johann Andreas Steiner. After his father died in 1747, Johann Martin had to assist his mother in his father's craft. As a result, he could no longer attend the Sonneberg Latin School regularly, which he later deplored as a chronicler. First he learned the craft of box painter and bismuth painting in his father's business from an early age . At the age of 21 he started his own business and got married. In 1776 he was sent to the municipal office of a quarter master by the bismuth painting guild and the simple citizenship for two years . In 1787 he took over the office of mayor for two years and then became a member of the city council. As councilor he was responsible for municipal construction from 1792 to 1793 and for city finances from 1795 to 1796. Then he was elected mayor , who also had to represent the city's interests externally. At the turn of the century he increasingly withdrew from public life.

However, Johann Martin Steiner did not acquire a meaning beyond his fulfilled life as a bismuth painter and councilor , but as a chronicler . As a result of the events after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War , from 1756 onwards, he felt compelled to write down special events of his time and to collect relevant documents. In doing so, he did not just record what happened in and around Sonneberg, “but also what he heard and what preoccupied the Sonneberg population. This included events in European history. Through reading the newspapers , men and women from the people were aware of what was happening in the world. The chronicler is fully a representative of his time, who wants to convey the most comprehensive picture possible to his descendants. ”After the death of Johann Martin Steiner, the handwritten chronicle remained in the possession of his descendants. In 1882 and 1883 excerpts from Steiner's Chronicle appeared in the daily press under the title “Sonneberg in Stadt und Land a Hundred Years Ago”. In 1926, the teacher Adolf Wilhelm Müller published extracts from a transcription that gave the impression that the chronicle was a historical work aimed only at Sonneberg. Following an agreement between the Sonneberg City Archives and the owner of Steiner's script , Professor of Theoretical Physics Frank Steiner , it was possible in 1999 to make the chronicle accessible to scientific research. The city archives commissioned the historians Hans Gauß and Thomas Schwämmlein with the transcription of Steiner's script. The collaboration between the two historians and a team from the Sonneberg City Archives ultimately led to a version of Steiner's Chronicle, which was published in 2017.

Others

Johann Martin's younger brother was the Sonneberg painter and song collector Johann Georg Steiner . The alley in the Upper City (old town), in which the brothers shared a house, has officially been called Steinersgasse since 1870 .

literature

• Chronicle of the city of Sonneberg by Johann Niklaus Bischoff 1369–1871. Stadtarchiv Sonneberg, signature: StadtA Son B I.02
• Chronicle of the city of Sonneberg by Johann Martin Steiner 1757–1802. Stadtarchiv Sonneberg, signature: StadtA Son B I.12
• Adolf Wilhelm Müller: From Johann Martin Steiner's Chronicle of Sonneberg 1757–1802. Publications of the district advice center for local history in Sonneberg, 1926 digitized
• Hans Gauß, Thomas Schwämmlein (in collaboration with the Sonneberg City Archives): Johann Martin Steiner's Chronicle of Sonneberg 1757–1802. Origin-Tradition-Historical Statement. Transcription and edition problems. Sonneberg Museum and History Association, 2001
• Chronicle of the city of Sonneberg 1757–1802 by Johann Martin Steiner. Editing: Heike Büttner, Nicki End, Hans Gauß, Waltraud Roß, Thomas Schwämmlein, Stadtarchiv Sonneberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-058293-6

Individual evidence

1. ^ Chronicle of the city of Sonneberg 1757-1802 by Johann Martin Steiner. Editing: Heike Büttner, Nicki End, Hans Gauß, Waltraud Roß, Thomas Schwämmlein, Stadtarchiv Sonneberg 2017, p. 49 ff, ISBN 978-3-00-058293-6
2. ↑ ibid., P. 63f
3. ↑ ibid., P. 57f